My Mom's sister Aunt Aggie wrote this one:
Agnes’ Memories
I think my earliest memory is when Baby Helen died. I remember climbing up on the dining room
chair to look into the white box on the table where Helen was laying. She was
such a beautiful baby. When I grew up I found out why she died….not being fully
developed in the stomach opening. If she had lived she would have have it
corrected through surgery. But God wanted her to be with him in Heaven.
I remember playing in the chicken yard – Rita and I would
rake the leaves into squares – these were rooms for our house. When we climbed the tree, we were in the
upstairs. We had different names. Mollanna and Fallana. We would try to get the kittens to be our
children but they were never cooperative.
Then there was the Carleton Homecoming. Pa and Ma would let
us ride the Merry-Go-Round and get an ice cream cone. We got a whole dime to spend.
Our Grandpa Wickenheiser “Nick” lived with us. He always made his own little garden. We used
to sneak over there and pull the carrots and eat them. They tasted twice as good when they were
stolen. If he caught us he’d chase us waving his cane.
When I was about in the third grade, Ma was concerned with my
weight. I seemed to be too skinny to suit her. She thought I didn’t eat enough.
I kept an eye on Rosie. When she refused
to eat something like onions in potatoes, then I didn’t want any either. Well,
Ma took me to Clara’s doctor and he ordered vitamins to make me hungry and rest
after school. Well, I still haven’t stopped eating! The rest part was probably
because I had a heart murmur which I didn’t find out till I had Charlie. The
nurses in the recovery room said it and I heard them just when I woke up. Charles got here via C-Section.
Grandpa used to catch me and make me play “66” with him. I
don’t remember how the card game goes but I do remember him teaching me and
playing it.
I was so elated when I came home from school and told Ma I
had learned to write my name. She asked me how to spell it and I said A N N E.
I was deflated when she told me that wasn’t Agnes. But it was my second name without the E.
One day this huge truck pulled into the driveway. It was my
brother Larry and his semi. When I stood next to it the bottom of the truck was
as tall as me. I didn’t know Larry very
well because he left home so early. He
was out of high school when he was 16.
I remember Pa coming home and lying on the couch and Rita and
I climbing on him and he’d tickle us.
The only way we could get away from him was to say we had to pee. Then
he would let us go.
I remember when Uncle Lawrence LaFountain died. He was shown
at his home. After the funeral everyone went to the house. I can remember
running and playing outside with all the kids. It was so much fun.
Wen Larry and Tee were married Pa was really upset because
there wasn’t going to be any beer at the reception. They were married on
Wednesday and the reception was at Tee’s folks house. Don and Ralph (Tee’s
brothers) showed us the rabbits in the back yard. They were very nice to us.
Every Lenten season Ma would walk us to church every day. Oh, then confession every other Saturday afternoon. We sure got a lot of church. Each evening we would all say the rosary. If one of us slouched Grandpa Nick would poke us with his cane, so we’d straighten up. When the rosary was said, we said our night prayers while we were at it.
Ma and Pa used to go to a relatives’ house to play cards or
someone would come to ours. Pa would embarrass Ma when he’d say, “Come in and
take your clothes off.” He meant take
your coats off.
Ma used to scare us with her stories. She’d say she read in
the papers that a man chopped up some kid and put them in a suitcase. Then she’d
let us walk to Aunt Mae’s to play with the kids. We would take a shortcut
through the fields, so no one could get us. This one time we saw this real pretty
flower. I tried to bend the stem, so I
could smell it. A blasted bumblebee was in it and stung me on my finger. I cried because it hurt so much, all the way
the to Aunt Mae’s. When I got there, I
cried so hard I had Aggie and Alfred crying too. Poor Aunt Mae.
I remember walking home from Richard’s on night. It was
summer but cool in the evening. These
were the days when girls and women wore slips.
Ma put her dress over her shoulders to get warm. So, I did it too. In those days there was not
much traffic after dark. I don’t think
we saw a car that night.
I think I will never forget the happy feeling that I had on
by first Holy Communion day. It was a beautiful sunny day. Ma had a little
party. Aunt Agnes was there. I always loved her. Partly because I had the same name
and partly because she was so funny. I thought “Torow” was swearing in French.
When I grew up I realized Toro meant bull in Spanish. She’d say, “Toro cow in
the wheat,” You figure it out.
Earl used to give us kids ride from the road to the barn on our horses Jack and Jenny. Our cow was a jersey. We had pigs and chickens too. Rita and I would stand by the white picket fence and wait for Earl to come home from working in the fields. We were so lucky to have free horse rides! Now days it costs a bunch to ride ponies who only walk in a circle.
One day Pa was going to butcher a pig. Ma told us not to go
near because she didn’t want us to see him slit the pig’s throat. So, we
grabbed a cookie each and ran outside and sneaked back by the pigpen. We did
see it! All of us threw up our cookies!
I remember the day Pa parked the[rw1] Graham Bradley tractor between the
house and garage. This tractor was real tall. I climbed up and pushed the
button on the dash. It was the start button. The tractor leaped forward and the
stick (I guess it was the exhaust) knocked down the eaves troughs.
One day Rosie was lying on the floor in the living room
kicking the wall and screaming. I asked her why she was doing that. She said when I cry and scream Ma gives me my
way. Well, I told Ma and she went out to
the spirea bushes and got a switch and used it on us both… didn’t leave a mark
though
I was rather small when I started school. I remember one day
Doug Bomia was saying “GD” and I told him he wasn’t supposed to do that. He
kept I up no matter what I’d say. Because I had lots of brothers and sisters I
was never afraid of any school kid. Well, I finally told Doug that if he said
that again I would take him down and sit on him. All this was going on after school and the
way home. So, I did. I pinned him down.
My dress was all torn, but I did it. He learned he couldn’t swear around me
anyway. I sure got scolded from Ma for ripping my dress. But I had a good
reason. Doug was kind of nasty. Riata and I would go to play with his sister
Lumelda. Doug would climb up on a barrel and try to pee on us. What a brat.
Just about every Sunday, Father Shaw would come over and play
cards with the boys. Anne and Earl Heckel would come over too. I always thought
she was so beautiful and Earl H treated her so nice. He’d play with the kids while they visited
Ma. Father Shaw would call and ask Ma if the boys could be godfathers. People
would show up for baptism and not have sponsors. When Father Shaw’s sisters
would visit with their girls, Father Shaw would call for Rosie and me to come
and play with them. One time he took us to the beach to swim.
Our school had three classrooms. St Pat’s had nuns for
teachers. Grades 1 and 2 were in one room. Grades 3.4.and 5 in another, and 6,7,
and 8 were in the other. A big class had
10-13 pupils. We had to use outdoor
toilets or privy’s as they were called. We used to walk to school each day. In
winter, we’d trudge to school and when we’d get there school was cancelled. We
get warmed up and go back home.
Pa died young. He had an infected tooth and other stuff
followed. I was 11 at the time. I remember it was the usual practice to have
the person laid out in the home at that time. I got really upset at all those
people who came and made my Ma cry! I started having nightmares! I’d dream that
I was in the coffin and everyone was crying. I’d say, “If you are gonna carry
on like that I’ll just get out of here” and I did. This was really realistic. I
had these dreams up until high school. They scared me.
Two months later Aunt Mae died leaving 7 kids parentless. Ma
let them come over to our house. For a while Clara took care of them, but the
bigger kids, Larry and Ed didn’t cooperate too good. A lady, Mrs. Raymond, from Toledo, said she’d
like Ed. She had a son his age, but he died. A lady in Wyandotte wanted Aggie
and Mary. Not having other kids, they proved too much for them. Larry went to
the Navy. Annie went to Mrs. Drouillard’s. She was a nurse, I think. Ma kept
Alfred. Aggie went to Aunt Rose’s in Toledo. Mary eventually went to live with
Tee and kids. Joe stayed with us till he went to service. While Joe was still
home he traded me jobs one Saturday. I cleaned the chicken coop and he scrubbed
the kitchen floor for me. What a mistake! He was done in an hour and it took me
all day.
Ma used to sew strips of rages together to make rugs. We
would roll the rags into balls. She’d get them to the rugmaker by Newport. He
would weave whatever size she’d tell him.
I remember when Mrs. Langton died. Marlene, her daughter, was just 6 years old.
We didn’t go to the funeral home, but Ma sat in the kitchen and sang “Hello Central,
give me Heaven cause my Mommy is there.” We all cried. The words were so sad.
Jerry Langton, Don Langton, Suzie Manor and I used to have to
stay after school for spelling and we’d walk home together. A few times of this
and we started to study more.
Rita and I used to have to pick up corncobs in the chicken
yard, so Ma could heat water for washing clothes. There was a little stove by
the furnace and a water tank was attached. Didn’t have hot water tanks in those
days. Our cook stove had a tank on the end called a reservoir. This heated dish
water etc.
I remember how excited we all were when Pa bought the Model A
Ford. We all went for a ride. Pa chewed tobacco and he spit on the window. He
thought it was open because it was so clean. Ma had just washed it. Pa would
give us a ride to school when it was raining.
When Cletus got his job at Fords, he made Christmas for all
of us. I got a puzzle. I was thrilled to death.! He made all of us happy.
They boys got drafted in ’42. Earl tried to get into the Army,
but the US left him home because Ma wouldn’t have anyone to support her and us.
One morning Earl came home from work and had a bandage on his neck.
He fell asleep on the way home from work. His usual getting
home time was very early in the morning. This day it was about 6. I had gotten
up early to scrub the kitchen floor. We like to do it early so on one would
walk on it before it was dry. When Ma woke up I mentioned she should look at
Earl’s neck. He laid down on her bed for a while. Ma got all excited when she
saw him. He had hit the concrete of an underpass come home from Wyandotte.
When we were in grade school the girls were all in one bed, 4
of us. The boys and grandpa Nick were in the middle room. Ma’s house had a
large linen closet in the hallway. Mimi would sleep in a smaller bed in the
girls’ room. All the rooms had walk in closets. Pa went to bed about 8pm and we
all had to too. When Mimi was there we’d get her to touch her nose with her
chin… She could do that when her teeth were out. We’d all start laughing. One
time Pa came up with a piece of wood, the kind we used in the kitchen stove,
and he waved it at us. Funny! He’d never would of hit us. He just wanted us to
get to sleep.
One day Earl promised us he would take us to the beach to swim
if we got all our work done. We went to Detroit Beach and had an innertube to
play on. I sat on the tube and it flipped me over underwater. From that day on I was afraid of water. I
thought I’d never get my footing.
On Sundays’ everyone would read the newspaper in the living
room. After Pa was laid out in there we
quit that. It wasn’t the same. The boys had papers, News and Free Press to
sell at church after Mass.
Each Sunday we had the same menu. Hot dogs, fried potatoes,
eggs, Ma’s coffeecake. For lunch we’d have a big chicken dinner. For suppers we
had the chicken dinner (warmed up) again.
I remember looking down the register in our room into the living room. We were told we were too young to stay up when the older kids had a party, so we would lay there and try to see them and listen. I remember one party Jack Baumeiseter threw up in the register in the dining room. Ma sure was mad. We were too because we had to help clean it up.
I remember when Cletus came home after the war he walked in
his sleep. Ma heard him and turned lights on. Here he was coming down the
steps, ripping up the rubber treads, with a dagger in his hand. Ma woke him up and took the knife. She hid it,
so it wouldn’t happen again.
When I graduated from SMA we had a little party, mostly
family. Larry bought me a nice watch with a second hand to use in nursing
school. I was so thrilled. I had never
had a watch before. I left for St V’s nursing school in he middle of June. We
had a small class of about 6 students. I sure got lonesome for home.
I remember how much I appreciated it when someone would
write. Teresa used to put a piece of gum in with her letters. I liked that! I
was there one year. Then the head of the Gray Nuns asked me if I wanted to be a
nun, because I would go to Mass each day. She said my family couldn’t afford to
let me take one subject over that I didn’t do well in. So, I got out! I think part of it was I was
so homesick.
I looked for a job and didn’t find one till after
Thanksgiving. I worked at Penny’s till the Christmas season was over. It was
April before I found another one…the Monroe News.
I remember having to depend on my brothers for a ride to and from work. I didn’t know how to drive and there wasn’t any car to drive if I needed it. One really cold night I had to work late to get the end of the month bills out. I got off work at 9pm. I waited for someone to pick me up. It was snowing and blowing. I was freezing. All the stores were closed, and I started looking around to see someone who might be leaving town and going to Carleton. Couldn’t find anyone… no brothers showed up, so I found a phone and called Oscar and asked him if he’d bring me home. He had to leave his warm home, 6 miles from Monroe to bring me to Carleton, 10 miles further from there. What a nice guy.
Agnes Wickenheiser (Mrs. Oscar) Vandevelde
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